Australian cricket captain
Michael Clarke
, fresh from witnessing major American sporting events, will urge Cricket Australia to invest more in entertainment at matches to attract new non-traditional fans to the game.

Clarke was impressed by the prominence of loud music and dancing during breaks in play, prizes for people in the crowd and novel food, when he and wife Kylie last week attended a Los Angeles Lakers NBA game and watched the St Louis Cardinals beat baseball rival Chicago Cubs.

The Australian skipper shared his thoughts at a reception hosted by Australia’s Ambassador to the United States,
Kim Beazley
, in Washington.

“The one thing I’ve learnt from being here is that Americans do sports better than any other country I’ve ever experienced," Clarke said.

“The whole time you’re there is pure entertainment. Even if you don’t follow that sport, you will have a great time because there’s so many other things going on around the event that make you want to go back.

“That’s something I will take back to Australia and Cricket Australia."

Drawing a different crowd

The emergence of Twenty20 cricket, a shorter form of the game with big hitting and high scoring, has been influenced by the desire to draw more families and women to attend matches.

Clarke, who made fleeting visits to the White House and Capitol building, was referred to by Ambassador ­Beazley as “the real Australian ­ambassador". “When you look for an idea of an Australian national team that represents an Australian ethos that is our outreach to the rest of the globe . . . it’s cricket that counts," Mr Beazley said.

“I used to [joke] with John Howard when we were political opponents that both of us would give the [politics] game up if someone were to suggest we could emerge as players for the Australian cricket team."

“Actually, we would have given it up just to be a selector for the Australian team!"

Mr Beazley, a former Defence Minister, surprised guests with a story about how the American Civil War of the 1860s was responsible for baseball trumping cricket as the dominant bat and ball sport in the US.

“It settled not only the issue of slavery, but also whether the United States would be a cricket country of baseball country," Mr Beazley said.

Until the civil war, cricket and baseball were about equal in popularity in east coast cities such as Philadelphia and New York. But during the war, players realised it was easier to organise a baseball diamond than a cricket pitch.

“So they gave up cricket after the first year or two of the civil war and they all took up baseball," Mr Beazley said.